Tex-Mex, with ghosts!

Since I will be traveling to Texas in about two months I thought I'd do a piece about hauntings in Texas, maybe even visit a site or two when I am there. In my mind Gothic stories and ghost stories go together, and while I have a lot of curiosity about ghosts and ghost stories I honestly think I would be be scared to death if I ever encountered a haunting. I have no desire to investigate a haunting, I just like reading ghost stories (whether real or made up). I chose a few random spooky things to talk about from the Lone Star State.

Whether you believe in haunting or not it seems that any place associated with strong emotions, especially sad emotions, has the potential to become the site of a haunting. All three of the places discussed seem to be locales that have lots of emotions attached to them and the residue of those emotions is what seems to make the places what they are, along with their resident ghosts.

Old Stagecoach Road, Marshall, Texas

 

This road is said to be built over the remains of an old Native American trail, so the place has seen many lives lived over a long period of time. Just about every kind of paranormal experience and experiences with cryptids (or supernatural animals and persons) have been associated with this road. The stagecoach became a primary mode of transportation roughly during the 1850's and remained so until the advent of the railroads which then made stagecoach transportation irrelevant and very inconvenient afterward. 

 

Stories are told of a "Death Coach that is seen, drawn by four black horses. If you see it you are doomed to die soon. Witnesses report seeing strange lights while on the road, if they park their cars they feel pressure and see hand prints on their vehicles after going there even though no people were seen while they were there. The east Texas Bigfoot, chupacabra, vampires, and a goat-man have also been reported in the area. There is a graffiti covered bridge along the road and folklore says that vampires and strangers were buried near the bridge to keep them away from the town nearby. The goat-man also supposedly buries his victims by the bridge. A weeping woman called La Llorona, wanders around looking for her lost children after murdering them in a fit of insanity after being spurned by her lover, when she finally realized what she did. There is also a woman dressed in white, who was a civil war nurse who appears on the road because she was killed in a stagecoach accident during the heyday of stagecoach travel and an murdering ax-man has also been known to make his appearance on the road as well.

With just the stories of Old Stagecoach road there are a myriad of ideas for budding authors out there who want to try their hand at writing a ghost story inspired by all the events that have taken place on this road.

The more I read about Old Stagecoach Road the more I think I want to stay away from it!

The Baker Hotel- Mineral Springs, TX.

 

There are stories of numerous hauntings in the Baker Hotel in Mineral Springs Texas. Rumor has it that the hotel is being restored after closing down in 1970.

The first reports of haunting came from hotel employees who said there was an apparition of a woman on the seventh floor. The woman is believed to be the mistress of the hotel manager and she stayed in a suite of rooms on the seventh floor. She became distraught because something happened with her lover and dramatically leaped to her death from the top of the building. Hotel staff and guests report they smelled her perfume and that she was also known to flirt with males she found attractive. Hotel maids reported that even though no one stayed in her former room, lipstick marks were found on the drinking glasses in there.

The basement is said to be haunted by a former employee who died in a tragic elevator accident. Psychics and ghost hunting teams have investigated the place and it is said to be haunted by many spirits. They say not all of the spirits stay because something tragic has happened to them, some of them come there because in life they enjoyed being at the place and they have good memories of it so they return.

An interesting story is told by persons who worked in a bank across the street from the old hotel during the 1990's: The bank windows looked out on the hotel and day after day the employees noticed that windows in the place would be opened and the next day different windows were opened and the previous ones were closed. They thought someone was living in the old hotel as a caretaker. They did not find out until after observing the windows for a period of time that no one lived there and that there was no caretaker! Who was opening and closing all the different windows then? I guess the ghosts wanted a bit of fresh air. Hundreds of mysterious orbs have been photographed in the hotel. 

Presidio La Bahia-Goliad,TX

This was a fort which was built over an old failed French fort in 1721 by the Spanish Army. It was the only Spanish fort built on the Gulf Coast of the USA, and is known as a fine example of Spanish architecture in North America. It was the scene of two battles during the Mexican War of Independence. The fort eventually became part of the new "United Mexican States" in 1821. In 1835, during the Texas revolution, insurgents marched on the fort. The Mexicans surrendered and the Texans now controlled the fort, it was renamed "Fort Defiance".

When Santa Ana led the siege against the Alamo, which is about 90 miles away from La Bahia, the Alamo commander sent word to La Bahia that he needed reinforcements. The commander of La Bahia, a man named Fannin was not too thrilled about the request and half-heartedly put together a relief party. The reinforcements were badly outfitted, they took a long time to get ready and were pretty incompetent while trying to travel the 90 miles to the Alamo. Their oxen ran away, they did not bring adequate food and it is doubtful such badly prepared reinforcements would have been any help at all to those besieged at the Alamo anyway, but the reinforcements abandoned their attempt at offering help and went back to La Bahia. When the Alamo fell, General Sam Houston ordered the garrison at La Bahia to leave the fort and fall back to a safer position. Again the garrison delayed, half halfheartedly prepared to leave and were caught just outside the walls of the fort by the Mexican forces. The garrison was captured and imprisoned there. (It appears that General Fannin was a man who could not really make up his mind about anything and his delays resulted in hardships and death for his men.)

After imprisonment, the garrison members were all taken outside the walls and executed by the Mexican forces in what is now known as the Goliad Massacre. Given the circumstances, it is not hard to imagine that you hear the screaming and crying of soldiers who have been imprisoned by an enemy and murdered there. There is no trouble understanding why this place is said to be haunted by all the soldier's spirits who met there demise after many battles and after being massacred by their enemies. The bad karma hangs about the place.

What will you visit when you are in Texas? It is a generously sized state that prides itself on doing things the big Texas way. There is a generous history of folklore and numerous accounts of hauntings and ghost stories across the whole state. If you do happen to see a Texas ghost, let me know if it was really bigger than the other ghosts you have seen!